I’ve always been curious about this and now that I’m helping another child apply to college, I find it impossible to think colleges do not have any bias when seeing if a student needs financial aid or not…they can’t give financial aid to every student (some have to carry the financial weight and pay full price). How does this work?
At schools where it is need blind, the admissions office has no direct knowledge of whether or not you have applied for financial aid. At need aware schools, it absolutely is factored in to your admissions decision but these schools never claim otherwise.
@iwannabe_Brown how do you know which schools are need aware?
That is not entirely a negative thing. It is perhaps less painful to be rejected because of financial than be accepted and later told that that there is not enough aid provided to make the school affordable (been there, done that, got the t-shirt, as they say).
Schools cannot afford to provide sufficient financial aid for every deserving student who applies for admission. I would think there has to be some process in place for culling some of the needy students. Otherwise there are a lot of those insufficient financial award letters sent out.
Even if the place is need-aware, they are the ones who determine how much aid they might be willing to offer you, so if you apply for aid, provided you don’t need lots and lots of it and you also are a very good match for that institution, then your need isn’t likely to stand in the way of you getting admission. If you are a so-so candidate, or very similar to umpteen other candidates, and you also clearly would require a lot more aid than those other candidates, that is when needing aid would be a problem.
Most places are need blind for admissions, and just send out bad financial aid offers to students who they can’t afford rather than admissions rejection letters. Then it is up to the students to decide whether or not to scrape together the money in order to attend.
Still kinda confused. Basically, in a need-aware school, you financial aid status does have some effect on your acceptance, even if it is slight. If candidates have the same qualifications but one needs financial aid, the wealthier applicant will receive the acceptance letter, correct?
any school that does not explicitly state that it is need blind should be assumed to be need aware
I don’t know much about how need aware schools factor that in to their admissions. I would assume though that your interpretation is correct. Why pay for a student when you can get the same one to pay you?
“Why pay for a student when you can get the same one to pay you?” (#6)
A commitment to democratic principles?
^Then shouldn’t you be need blind?
I’m not sure why it matters unless you can afford to pay (maybe not easily, but could scrape the money together), but just prefer not to. If a student can’t attend unless they get financial aid, they have to apply for it. What good is an acceptance if you have to turn it down because you can’t afford it?
I think it will tend to have more influence when the student isn’t in the top x percentile. So a standout student (based on the particular schools SAT/GPA stats) may have their ‘need’ weighed less in admissions, while a student near the lower side, that need might be more of a factor. There are so many subtleties to admission - a 2200 SAT does not always gain acceptance over the 2000 - and I think the same goes for financial need. Not so cut-and-dry as “the wealthier student gets in”. So, pick schools where they want you for other reasons, and you’re more likely to get whatever aid they have to offer. (of course if you truly need aid, you want to also choose schools that have decent aid to give; that calculate your EFC lower as opposed to higher; and use lower loan amounts to help get you there)
Slightly old list of need aware colleges: http://www.usnews.com/education/articles/2010/03/23/colleges-where-need-for-aid-can-hurt-admission-odds
Reed stated they are need blind until they get to the last part of the selection (near the cut line). Then they balance the need and record. As others have stated, if you DO have need then not stating that is silly because you won’t be able to afford the college even if you get in.
“If candidates have the same qualifications but one needs financial aid, the wealthier applicant will receive the acceptance letter, correct?”
No. Not necessarily. Need aware means need is considered-- along with a host of other factors in trying to make the right class. Reed and the other colleges on the list have plenty of kids on aid.
And it isn’t as simple as “same qualifications.” A lot of this depends on what colleges you’re looking at- and what they are looking for in their class. And how that kid presents himself in his application. To help, you need to understand a lot more than whether or not a family needs aid.
Obviously everyone doesn’t need the same so do colleges try to read into which student might or might need less? Perhaps they look at education and profession of parents and say well this candidate says they need financial aid but probably won’t qualify for a lot so I’ll admit??? Or do they assume when you say need it will be max?
I shouldn’t have spoken so bluntly/simply in my post. I meant what @WhataProcess said, that as you get further down the applicant pool it could start to matter more and more and that in actuality, it’s not as simple as “richer kid gets in” because no two applicants are truly identical anyway, but that certainly “not needing aid” has to be some sort of a boost vs. “needing aid.”
@tganns, with a need aware school, I believe the admissions committee has full access to the financial aid application so no guess work needed.
I don’t think it’s so black and white, @austinmshauri . We can afford to pay but we will really have to scrape by. I’m sure my husband and I will have to work an extra 5 years beyond our expected retirement just to pay for this. The problem is that we are middle class so it poses the typical problem: we can barely pay for college so we don’t receive any financial aid. Whereas, the less fortunate get lots of it and the rich don’t need it at all. There really is a difference between barely being able to pay for college and easily paying.
And as much as I really do appreciate everyone’s input, I feel like a lot of it is just speculation. I wish a seasoned college admission officer could give some real insight on the issue.
Deciding whether or not you can pay means you have to consider all the costs, including adding on extra years before you can retire. If that’s not a cost you’re willing to bear, then you can’t afford the school.
I think you’re a little confused. Low income families don’t get a lot of aid unless they get accepted to an elite college that will meet their need. Those are few and far between and the chances of getting admitted are slim, so the number of low income students who are getting those deals is not very high. If you’d like to qualify for all the aid you think they receive, you could always quit your jobs and donate all your assets to charity, but I wouldn’t recommend it.
Have you been running NPCs for various colleges?
Need Blind means need is not considered when making the admit decisions. In contrast, at a Need Aware, the schools do consider their FA budgets during admissions. Different colleges can have different particular ways they do that. How it affects an applicant depends on that and the strength of the individual candidate. You have to understand what those colleges like and are looking for. And run NPCs.
@austinmshauri brings up a good point. Need blind/need aware is separate from commitment to fulfilling demonstrated need. I think all 4 combos exist:
Need blind - 100% guaranteed. At these schools, ability to pay is not a factor for admission, and if you get admitted, the school promises to provide enough FA to meet their definition of your need.
Need blind - not guaranteed. At these schools, ability to pay is not a factor in admissions, but if you get admitted the school may not provide enough aid for you to attend.
Need aware - 100% guaranteed. At these schools, ability to pay is a factor, but if you get admitted, the school promises to provide enough FA to meet their definition of your need.
Need aware - not guaranteed. At these schools, ability to pay is a factor, and there is no guarantee they provide enough aid if you’re admitted.
My kids went to Need Aware/Meet Full Need, got good FA. Their need for aid obviously didn’t hinder their apps. I work for a Need Blind/MFN. No one says, oops, kid shows signs of needing aid, let’s slip him down in our ratings.
When a parent thinks their middle class family can “barely pay,” to me the issue to focus on is not whether the college is Need Aware, but how generous their fin aid policies are. In addition to carefully checking how the school describes their aid policies, how they gap or toss in loans, you run the NPCs, run a sample FAFSA forecaster, and look at a sample of the CSS Profile forms, to see what they look at in your own financial specifics. And look for schools that offer merit aid the kid can qualify for.
I don’t know how up OP is on these finaid details. But some colleges count things like home equity more than others do. Cash on hand and other assets matter. All will make allowances for certain other details.